Direct HDO process for difurfurylidene acetone dimer (F2A) conversion to liquid alkanes (C8 C14) at 260 degrees C in a batch reactor was investigated over different material supported 1 wt%Pt catalysts, including SAPO-11, HZSM-5, SiO2-Al2O3, MCM-22, and home-made SiO2-ZrO2. CS-Cm alkanes of 55.8% was obtained over the optimized I wt%Pt/SiO2-ZrO2 due to its proper pore size of 9.0 nm and moderate acidic centers, together with more than 10% carbon yield of the oxygenated hydrocarbons, including C11-C13 chain alcohols 82 ketones and the hydrogenated F(2)A dimers with furan ring (H-F(2)A dimers). To improve the liquid alkane yield, a two-step process for F(2)A conversion was also investigated, which included low-temperature hydrogenation at 50 C over Raney Ni catalyst in a batch reactor and the subsequent high-temperature hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) at 280 degrees C over 1 wt%Pt/SiO2 ZrO2 in a fixed-bed reactor. The selectivity of 1,5-di(tetrahydro-2-furany1)-3-pentanol (II-c) was the highest of 83.0% among the hydrogenated intermediates of H-F2A dimers due to the protonation effect of methanol as the solvent and the hydrogenation of C=C bonds by Ni active centers. In the same time, the high content of this saturated alcohol H-dimer of II-C increased the solubility and stability of the intermediates in methanol solvent. High carbon yield of C-8-C-14 alkanes of 82.9%(mol) was obtained after oxygen atom removal from H-F(2)A dimers via, the second-step HDO reaction. Long time operation showed the stability of 1 wt%Pt/SiO2-ZrO2 as HDO catalyst, deduced from the steady phase structure, acidity of SiO2 ZrO2 support and Pt active centers by catalyst characterization. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.